Pegasus B738 at Istanbul on Feb 5th 2020, overran runway, impacted wall, broke up

Last Update: December 26, 2020 / 14:52:01 GMT/Zulu time

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Photo of Pegasus Airlines TC-IZK, Boeing 737-800 — Pegasus Airlines TC-IZK, Boeing 737-800 (Photo credit: Anna Zvereva / Flickr / License: CC by-sa)

Incident Facts

Date of incident
Feb 5, 2020

Classification
Accident

Airline
Pegasus Airlines

Flight number
PC-2193

Departure
Izmir, Turkey

Destination
Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen, Turkey

Aircraft Registration
TC-IZK

Aircraft Type
Boeing 737-800

ICAO Type Designator
B738

A Pegasus Boeing 737-800, registration TC-IZK performing flight PC-2193 from Izmir to Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen (Turkey) with 177 passengers and 6 crew, landed on Sabiha Gokcen's runway 06 at 18:20L (15:20Z) but overran the end of the runway, impacted the airport perimeter wall and broke into three parts about 170 meters/550 feet past the runway end. An engine, that had separated, caught fire. As of current rescue and recovery works are in progress, the engine fire was quickly extinguished. Three passengers died, 180 people were taken to hospitals with injuries, 19 of them were diagnosed with serious injuries.

Istanbul's governor reported 52 people were taken to hospitals with injuries, including all 6 crew members. In the later evening (19:20Z) the governor reported 120 people were taken to hospitals, efforts to free people still trapped inside the aircraft are still ongoing. Around 20:13z the governor reported there were 177 passengers and 6 crew on board, one occupant died, 157 people were taken to hospitals with injuries.

Turkey's Transport Ministry reported there were 177 people on board, there was no loss of life. The aircraft landed hard, went off the runway and got stuck in land.

The airline reported their aircraft TC-IZK flying from Izmir to Sabiha Gokcen suffered a runway excursion on landing. So far there has been no loss of life been reported, injured have been taken to hospitals. Information will continue.

In the wee hours of Feb 6th 2020 the Ministry of Health reported three occupants of the aircraft had died. A total of 179 people are still in hospital care, thereof three are still in intense care. The others are in "good condition". Later the day the ministry released the names of the deceased identifying them as passengers.

The Anatolian Chief Public Prosecutor's Office have opened an investigation into the accident. Both pilots are going to be interviewed for negligence causing death and injuries to more than one person. Blood samples were taken from both pilots, their mobile phones were confiscated. Surveillance camera recordings were requested from the airport and transcripts of the communication with the aircraft from ATC.

According to Mode-S data transmitted by the aircraft the aircraft landed long and hot, 1500 meters before the runway threshold the aircraft was descending through 950 feet MSL (corrected for local pressure, actual Mode-S reading 1500 feet)/661 feet AGL at 194 knots over ground, touched down about abeam taxiways T/F (about 1950 meters/6400 feet past the threshold, about 1000 meters/3300 feet before the runway end) at about 130 knots over ground, overran the end of the runway at about 63 knots over ground veering slightly to the left (last transponder transmission), hit the localizer antenna runway 06, went over an airport road and a cliff and impacted the airport perimeter wall.

According to ATC frequency recordings the aircraft performed an ILS approach to runway 06. Upon contacting tower the crew was told there had been two go arounds prior to them. In Turkish Tower added the immediately preceeing aircraft had reported heavy tailwind and had gone around. The aircraft was cleared to land on runway 06, tower adivsed winds were from 270 degrees at 22 knots gusting 37 knots, the crew read back the cleared to land. After landing tower alerted emergency services in Turkish and advised them, the aircraft had gone downhill past the end of runway 06, tower was not able to see the aircraft. During approach and landing of PC-2193 the ground controller on ground frequency reported to another aircraft preparing for departure the winds were coming from 270 degrees at 25 knots, the runway was being switched from 06 to 24. At 15:20z a lot of shouting in Turkish occurs on tower frequency (presumably alerting emergency services and directing them to the accident site). About 13 minutes before the accident tower had cleared another aircraft to land on runway 06 advising that crew the winds were coming from 100 degrees at 10 knots.

Weather scientist SatWx Aviation (see video with flight and weather animation below) stated: "As PC-2193 landed there was a rapidly developing thunderstorm moving over the airfield."

On Apr 28th 2020 the NTSB reported the occurrence was rate an accident and is being investigated by the Government of Turkey. Three occupants died, 19 received serious injuries and 161 received minor injuries.

On Dec 26th 2020 Turkish Media report the final expert report has been submitted to Istanbul's Chief Prosecution Office (editorial note: the website of the Turkish Accident Investigation is still defunct, and by past experience it is not to be expected that a final investigation report will ever be published - we'd certainly prefer to see the original report rather than what media report about statements provided in a press conference). According to the States Attorney the report states that the accident was "predictable and preventable". The aircraft had received a lightning strike earlier into the flight causing stress to the captain, who wanted to get the aircraft onto the ground as quickly as possible. The approach to runway 06 became unstable with too high a speed in addition to strong tail wind, tower did not instruct a go around. After touch down the captain disabled automatic brakes and speed brakes when he believed the aircraft had slowed sufficiently, the aircraft did not experience deceleration for about 6 seconds as result before manual braking was applied causing the main wheels to hydroplane. The aircraft crossed the runway end at 57 knots and impacted the airport perimeter wall causing 3 fatalities and 180 injuries. The report also states that the copilot, with 400 hours total flight time, did not call out various deviations (e.g. speed, sinkrate, ...) during the final approach and did not call for a go around. Part of the blame also goes to the tower, who believed the landing was risky but cleared the flight to land and did not instruct a go around. The lack of a runway end safety area contributed to the accident and in particular to the severity of the accident.

Metars:
LTFJ 051550Z 27013KT 240V300 9999 -SHRA BKN030 BKN070 10/08 Q0993 RETSRA NOSIG=
LTFJ 051537Z 29018KT 9999 -SHRA FEW025CB BKN036 BKN070 10/08 Q0992 RETSRA NOSIG=
LTFJ 051520Z 29022G37KT 240V330 7000 -TSRA FEW017CB BKN025 BKN070 11/09 Q0992 RESHRA NOSIG=
LTFJ 051450Z VRB08G18KT 9999 -SHRA FEW025CB BKN036 BKN070 12/09 Q0990 NOSIG=
LTFJ 051420Z 32018KT 290V350 7000 -SHRA FEW025CB BKN036 BKN080 13/10 Q0989 NOSIG=
LTFJ 051404Z 33013KT 300V360 9999 -SHRA BKN036 BKN080 13/10 Q0988 NOSIG=
LTFJ 051350Z 01011KT 9999 BKN040 BKN080 14/11 Q0987 NOSIG=
LTFJ 051320Z 06007KT 020V090 9999 SCT040 BKN090 16/10 Q0987 RESHRA BECMG 23012KT=
LTFJ 051250Z 12004KT 070V170 9999 -SHRA SCT040 BKN080 19/08 Q0987 NOSIG=
LTFJ 051220Z 15006KT 100V170 9999 SCT040 BKN080 19/08 Q0988 NOSIG=

Related NOTAMs:
A0743/20 NOTAMN
Q) LTBB/QMRLC/IV/NBO/A /000/999/4054N02919E005
A) LTFJ B) 2002051531 C) 2002051730
E) RWY 06/24 CLSD.
-DUE TO AIRCRAFT CRASH-

A0746/20 NOTAMN
Q) LTBB/QILAS/I /NBO/A /000/999/4054N02920E005
A) LTFJ B) 2002051655 C) 2002071700
E) ISAB ILS/LLZ 109.9 MHZ RWY 06 U/S.

Ground observer post accident video (Video: Ali ÖZDENÝ